After a 20-year hiatus, Mexico is once again getting ready for Grand Prix action, with the country tentatively expected to return to the FIA World Championship calendar during the 2015 Formula One season. All that remains is for the somewhat run-down Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City to be upgraded to current F1 working standards and officials will be ready to embrace the 16th running of the Mexican Grand Prix.

The inaugural Mexican Grand Prix was conducted in 1962 on the nation’s first international motor racing course—the Magdalena Mixhuca Circuit. The 5.000-kilometre asphalt course with 14 turns was constructed within the public park of Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City, which is located in the capital city’s in northeast section. Sadly, 20-year-old local driver Ricardo Rodríguez was killed in practice while preparing for that race, which was not an official F1 World Championship event. While the nation mourned its loss, Britons Trevor Taylor and Jim Clark took the checkered flag driving for Team Lotus and set the stage for full championship status to be granted by FIA the following year.

The 1963 Mexican Grand Prix was set for October as the penultimate leg of the 10-race F1 schedule. It turned out to be a season totally dominated by Great Britain, with three drivers (Clark, John Surtees and Graham Hill) winning all ten of the Grand Prix events, taking every pole position and posting all but one of the fastest laps, while British constructors entered nine of ten winning vehicles. The Magdalena Mixhuca Circuit saw Clark defend his title in a Lotus-Climax.

The next two editions belonged to the United States, with Americans Dan Gurney and Richie Ginther successful in 1964 and 1965, respectively. Then the British came raging back, as Surtees was triumphant in 1996, Clark completed his hat trick in 1997 and Hill got his own win in 1998. The following year, it appeared that another British driver. Jackie Stewart, was poised to stand atop Mexico’s podium, having already earned enough points to win the F1 Drivers Title for the year, but it was New Zealand’s Denny Hulme in a McLaren-Ford that pulled out the win, paving the way for the first non-Anglo victory in the Mexican Grand Prix by Belgium’s Jacky Ickx in 1970.

Unfortunately, the 1970 race was marred by a crowd incited incident. Some 200,000 spectators had come to see local hero Pedro Rodríguez, Ricardo’s younger brother, who had won the Belgian Grand Prix four months earlier. It turned out to be too many people for organisers to control, and the mob’s rowdy antics threatened to interfere with the race. Then, on the 33rd of 65 scheduled laps, a dog broke free from the stands, ran across the track and was hit by Stewart. The suspension of the British driver’s car was so badly damaged, he was forced to retire. After the race, FIA officials declared the Mexican circuit was unsafe and dropped it from the calendar.

Then tragedy struck once more. In 1971, Pedro Rodríguez died during an Interserie sports car race at Norisring in Nuremberg, Germany. Once again, the country was thrown into a state of mourning. To honour the memory of the nation’s two lost drivers, the Magdalena Mixhuca Circuit was renamed Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, meaning “The Rodríguez Brothers Racetrack.” The course was subsequently shortened to 4.421 kilometres in view of safety concerns, too.

The Mexican Grand Prix was absent from the F1 World Championships until 1986~92. That brief period saw yet another British driver leave his mark on the race, as Nigel Mansell won in 1987 and 1992. He would be joined by France’s Alain Prost as the only other two-time winner of event, with success in 1988 and 1990. Thereafter, a number of attempts were made without success to revive Mexico’s F1 role, which is why 2015 is being viewed by racing enthusiasts with considerable anticipation.

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